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White House regroups after Mubarak stunner

'It is not yet clear that this transition is immediate, meaningful or sufficient,' said the president. |
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But Egypt’s ambassador to the U.S., Sameh Shoukry, insisted Thursday night that despite its ambiguous language, Mubarak’s speech had actually conveyed all the president’s substantive powers to Suleiman, who was now the “de facto” president.

Some State Department officials seemed to agree with Shoukry, but said the problem was that point was not made clear to the Egyptian people.

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At least publicly, the Obama administration spent much of Thursday in a state of suspended animation, waiting for Mubarak to speak and watching to see how demonstrators responded. After returning from Michigan, Obama kept Air Force One idling at Andrews Air Force Base while he watched Mubarak’s speech.

At the State Department, the daily briefing for reporters was canceled. Crews from Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera spent the afternoon waiting for interviews with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that never happened.

Appearing with Panetta at the House Intelligence Committee hearing earlier in the day, Obama administration officials argued that the Egyptian crisis could benefit U.S. counterterrorism goals, depending on how the calls for democracy are resolved.

“With respect to what’s going on in Egypt, I think this is truly a tectonic event,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said at the hearing on threats to the U.S. “There [is] potentially a great opportunity here to come up with a counternarrative to Al Qaeda and its franchises and what it is espousing.”

“There is no question that what we are seeing happening in Egypt will have tremendous impact,” Panetta said. “The problem … is that when you have these events take place, it becomes very uncertain, and oftentimes very unpredictable, to try to figure out whether or not those in a leadership role will make the right decisions at the right moments. … But if it’s done right, it will help us a great deal in trying to promote stability in that part of the world. If it happens wrong, it could create some serious problems for us and for the rest of the world.”

Some lawmakers suggested Thursday that policymakers were being too gloomy about the developments in the Middle East.

“The most encouraging thing I’ve seen in a long time is what’s happening in Egypt and the potential it has,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). “I know there’s a lot of risks as well. But the potential, I think, is enormous in terms of liberating the Arab world from the shackles of authoritarian regimes that have kept their people down and subjugated the role of women and resulted in a lack of opportunity and provided fertile ground for terrorism.”

At the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, prominent Republicans criticized Obama over Egypt, but they seemed to step gingerly in light of the explosive and unpredictable situation.

“What does the president of the United States do? He sides with the protesters,” said former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). “I am not suggesting that we shouldn’t side with the protesters, but what message are we sending to countries around the world who are friends of ours — when things get tough we walk away.”

With Mubarak and Suleiman lashing out repeatedly against unspecified “foreign interests” they say are fueling the Egyptian unrest, the limits of U.S. power to affect developments in Cairo seemed to be on display. But analysts said the U.S. could still persuade the Egyptian military to avoid bloodshed, particularly on the tense Friday to come.

“I understand there are contacts going on at all levels with the Egyptian military, with the U.S. side pointing out it will be a real disaster if the military gets involved in violence against protesters,” Hicks said.

Jennifer Epstein contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said incorrectly that Vice President Joe Biden called Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman on Thursday. The call that was described took place on Feb. 8th.

The whole administration is amateur hour. He and his intelligence team were completely wrong this morning. Get the adults back in there is 2012. Romney/Christie. Romney is the CEO we need to run this country while Christie will keep him conservative and will be the attack dog for the admin. No one wants to go toe-to-toe with Christie.

Wow, these guys really have no idea what they are doing. Do we have any reliable intelligence over there at all? Panetta is head of the CIA and he is relying on "news reports"? If this wasn't so sad, it would be hilarious. Hillary says Egypt is stable, Obama says Mubarak will step down, Biden says Mubarak isn't a dictator, and Panetta says he is confused by the reports. These people just ooze confidence, don't they? This whole debacle just verifies what many of us have suspected since day one; this administration has absolutely no idea what they are doing.

Wow, these guys really have no idea what they are doing. Do we have any reliable intelligence over there at all? Panetta is head of the CIA and he is relying on "news reports"? If this wasn't so sad, it would be hilarious. Hillary says Egypt is stable, Obama says Mubarak will step down, Biden says Mubarak isn't a dictator, and Panetta says he is confused by the reports. These people just ooze confidence, don't they? This whole debacle just verifies what many of us have suspected since day one; this administration has absolutely no idea what they are doing.

It was disappointing because Obama's key Intelligence point people, Donilon, Clapper and CIA Director Peneta were either making comments that just made themselves and the Administration look foolishly naive (like the Muslim Brotherhood is primarily a secular group) or publically regurgitating the positions of a cadre of U.S. "journalists"--who were confusing their own opinions/political agendas to masquarade as facts, rather than paying attention to what was really going on within the Egyptian gov't.

Maybe it gives them comfort, but there are still "journalists" out there who seem to believe that Mubarak could have gone out there with his statement and decision to "stay the course" without the full support of the military. That's not how it works in Egypt...Mubarak could have never taken this stand, whether we like it or not, without his military's support. The big question now is when and how the military is going to impose "order" and try to put an end to the ongoing street protests.

A disappointing day because it was Amateur Hour today for this Administration on this issue. btw, why was there no public comment from our Sec. of State Clinton? Job #1 for this Administration is to make sure that one, at most two, high ranking officials make the public statements and everyone else keep their mouth shut.

All you tealibans, pray, what will you do differently? Follow Santorium, who in one sentence criticize the administration for supporting the protesters, then in the next sentence validatiing same approach? You guys are just crazy nuts, who do not recognize the responsibility of leadership. Maybe we should have done what we did in Iraq, forcibly removed the Mubarak?

For all his faults and wrongheadedness, Mubarak has successfully told busybody doofus Obama to butt out, as well he should -- two days in a row. Obama's too stupid to get the message, though.

How dare he tell Egypt what to do and talk in that haughty tone!

Obama needs to SHUT UP. Just shut up, Barry, shut the mouth and be quiet. You don't know when to talk and when to be quiet. You wait silently when you should speak up, and your run your stupid mouth when you need to work behind the scenes and not make outrageous demands -- yes, demands -- of countries that are struggling to be free.

Why is it, Barry, that everything you try to fix winds up in worse condition than it was before you came along and added your "brilliance" to the situation?

In the haste to take some early "credit" for "historic" events unfolding, President Obama jumped the proverbial "shark". Oops. It didn't happen. Now, I realize the Administration is at a disadvantage by not having a clue what it going on, completely hamstringed by the choices (which any Administration would be... support the protesters and possibly end up with the Muslim Brotherhood in charge.... throw Hosni under the bus and rattle currently propped -up Middle East dictatorships...), but the fact that Leon Panetta today ended up admitting that he wasn't offering "intelligence" (his job, his responsibility!) from HIS CIA, but he was just repeating news reports he saw.... and Clapper indicating in front of Congress today that the Mulsim Brotherhood is secular, is scary. It is SIMPLY SCARY to find out that the CIA knows nothing, isn't run by someone who has any knowledge but that which he reads in the paper, and Mr. Clapper, who didn't know about London terrorist events when asked by Andrea Mitchel months ago told Congress the Muslim Brotherhood is secular! Would it be too big a leap to suggest that since Mr. Clapper didn't know about the London incidences when asked, actually DOES know with certainty the Muslim Brotherhood is secular (despite some of the known issues with that group)? Is it too big a leap to suggest that Clapper has ANY idea of the Muslim Brotherhood and its agenda, history and future stated and written goals if the Director of the CIA doesn't even have inside information on the situation in Cairo? Why on earth do we think Clapper has ANY real information that is to be believed... about the Muslim Brotherhood.

This is a complete disaster and the Administration has no people of substance or experience handling it. Period. And for God's sakes... weren't we getting rid of Gibbs? Why is Gibbs talking AT ALL about Egypt instead of the NSA or the CIA representing the Administration's position? He's contradictory and uninformed. We know that. That means the following people are on record as having made major information mistakes, or read their "intel" from the news media or speeches (no real boots-on-the-ground information even though everyone is on the ground in Egypt) or they are espousing someone else's supposed sense of the situation as a press secretary. I count those people as Panetta, Clapper, Obama and Gibbs.... those guys are in charge of intel and message? Yikes. We're definitely in trouble in Egypt if we can't get our act together better than this! Difficult situation made extremely difficult due to complete ineptness of the "team". Sad, but true. Hilary, save us please from these ****es!

I think they're looking for you on www.dailykos.com. I heard them calling your name. I told them you were lost wandering around some centrist political website and you'd be right back. Hope this helps you get home, because clearly you are on the wrong website comment section. ET, go home. :)

This foolishness is because Obama & Company actually believes what his fellow idiots like Clapper tell them. Mubarak was sitting with Sadat 30 years ago when the Muslim Brotherhood shot Sadat. Mubarak and the rest of the Egyptian Army know exactly what an Islamic government will do to 'secular' Egypt. Unfortunately, we in America still fail to realize the Brotherhood means exactly what it says and will do it if they get the chance.